FSANZ
Celebrating 25 years of food standards setting
Prevention futures and food fads,
frictions and faiths
Professor Andrew Wilson
Director TAPPC
Prevention, Food Policy
and Food Standards
A
Personal Journey
The
Stages of Standards
Systems
Fads,
Thinking and Prevention
Frictions and Faith
Prevention, Food Policy and
Food Standards:
a personal journey
Oysters
and Biscuits
Protecting
A
our Peanuts
Premier gets Chinese Restaurant
Syndrome
Stages of Regulation and Standards
 Food
safety
 Microbiological
 Toxins and other chemicals
 Food
Constituents and Composition
 Food
Quality
 Food
Benefit claims including health
 Food Additives
including for health benefits –
folate, thiamine
 Broader
Restrictions for other benefits including
long term health – salt, sugar,
Chronic Disease, Diet and Nutrition
AIHW
2061:
BoD
Study
2011
Common Chronic Conditions
with Dietary Risk Factors

Cardiovascular Diseasae

Diabetes Mellitus

Cancers – oesphagus, colorectum, breast, endometrium, kidney

Osteoporosis

Dental Disease

Allergic Disease

Hypothrodism

(Obesity)
AIHW 2016: BoD Study 2011
Convincing and Probable Relationships
between Dietary and Lifestyle Factors
and Chronic Disease
Willett et al, 2006
The Era of Chronic Disease
Prevalence of measured obesity for
adults aged ≥ 15 years
in five OECD countries
Systems Thinking and Prevention
What we can expect from Prevention
 The
principal forms of prevention are very
different in concept, cost and dollar yield
 Prevention
as a cost-saver must be seen in the
context of a complex health system
 Prevention
is principally about keeping people well
or health-stable, and not fundamentally about
saving costs (though it might).
Principles for Prevention System
 Problem
Definition
 Problem Analysis
 Its
– Increasingly Complex
a long Journey, not a Happening.
 Needs
to be Research Informed but wont
necessarily have all the evidence in advance of
sensibly acting.
 Needs
Sustained Effort and Resources
 Usually
Requires Coalitions and Collaborations of
Interest
 Public
and Political Commitment
14
Principles of Systemic Thinking
and Acting
 An
understanding of interrelationships
 A commitment
 An
to multiple perspectives
awareness of boundaries
Williams B, Hummelbrunner R. Systems
Concepts in Action. 2011 pp
15
What does this mean?
1.
Understand the Problem and Context
(Diagnostic)
2.
Identify Intervention Points and Options
3.
Identify Potential Impact
(Effectiveness, Risks, Equity, Benefit-Cost)

4.

Identify Potential Achievability under Different
Settings
(Political, Investment Level, Scaling, Dose)
5.
Understand the Players and Interactions
6.
Implement, Learn, Change
(understanding, action, outcomes)

16
17
Butland B et al.
Foresight Tackling
Obesities: Future
Choices –Project report
2007.
Healthy and Equitable Eating (HE2)
Healthy and Equitable Eating (HE2)
• Develop a systems-based framework to clarify and
communicate the interconnections between different policy
domains.
• Explore the quantitative modelling of the interconnections
between key policy subsystems and HE2
• Establish the HE2 framework for addressing the social
determinants of inequities in healthy eating
• Test the HE2 framework using Australian federal and state
level government policies
• Identify barriers and opportunities to cross-government
action that takes a systems approach to the pursuit of HE2
goals
Analysis Paralysis
Better Understanding and Testing
Political Environments
1.
An individualistic, market-driven society that
adopts a more long-term and sustainable view.
2.
A society where social responsibilities are
prioritised, and communities and Government
implement plans to meet long-term challenges.
3.
A society where communities take the lead and
focus on tackling difficulties as they arise.
4.
An individualistic, market-driven society that
reacts to problems when and where they
occur.
Butland B et al. Foresight Tackling Obesities: Future Choices –Project report 2007.
Butland B et al.
Foresight Tackling
Obesities: Future
Choices –Project report
2007.
Butland B et
al. Foresight
Tackling
Obesities:
Future
Choices –
Project
report 2007.
McKinseys Global Institute 2015
The Confused Consumers
Food Fads, Frictions and Faiths
 The
Easy Fixes – Fad Diets
 The
Misleading – The Miracle Supplements
 The
Lasting Myths
 The
Confusion - Real and Pseudo Disagreement among Experts
Prevention Directions
Conclusions
 Regulation
of Food has contributed substantially
to improving human health
 In
terms of preventing chronic disease, there is a
lot more that could be done in relation to
nutrition and diet.
 We
wont always have all the evidence before we
should act.
 In
addition to regulation, the messaging that we
do about nutrition and diet is being confused and
lost in media fascination with fads and
controversies.
‘You are old, Father William’ (1865)
Lewis Carroll
“You are old, Father William,” the young man said,
“And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head –
Do you think, at your age, it is right?”
“In my youth,” Father William replied to his son,
“I feared it might injure the brain;
But, now that I’m perfectly sure I have none,
Why, I do it again and again.”
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